


The Mouths of Babes

by Headfulloffantasies



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Hunters, Shapeshifters - Freeform, Vampires, djinn, hunter funeral
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:54:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27787081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Headfulloffantasies/pseuds/Headfulloffantasies
Summary: 5 times other hunters talked about those Winchester boys.
Kudos: 15





	The Mouths of Babes

1  
Her whole life, Katie had heard stories about the Winchester boys. It started with tales about John Winchester, “and those boys of his.” Shortly after, those same stories turned into tall tales about the Winchesters’ latest great victory. Unbelievable stuff. Dragons. Demons. Fairies. Gods.

Katie’s Uncle Lou would come up to the house with a case he needed help with. He and Katie’s dad would talk a long time, and at the end of many of those talks Dad would say, “This is too weird for us. Leave it to the Winchesters.”

When she turned eighteen and was ready to go on her first solo hunt, Uncle Lou sat Katie down for a talk. If she ever found a case too weird, he instructed her to call him, and he’d call his pal Garth to tell the Winchesters to drop by.

Katie wished she’d listened to Uncle Lou.

She and her partner Leslie slammed their backs against the storeroom door. The thumps on the other side shook the whole doorframe. 

“It’s only a shapeshifter,” Leslie sassed, repeating Katie’s words back to her. “It’ll be easy. We’ll be home for dinner.”

“So it’s a shapeshifter family,” Katie grunted as another body rattled the door. “We can still take them.”

“Are you kidding me?” Leslie yelled. “The whole farm is infested. If we make it out of this, I’m going to kill you.” 

“I told you we should have left it to the Winchesters,” Katie ground out.

Leslie’s long blonde hair hid her face. “I’m sorry, okay? Next time you can do the research.”

At that moment a bang like a gunshot rang out. Katie instinctively ducked. The doors stopped shuddering under the shapeshifter onslaught. Another bang, and another, accompanied a scream. Then silence.

Katie and Leslie traded a wide-eyed stare.

Someone knocked on the door. Leslie screamed.

“Hey, take it easy,” a male voice said on the other side of the door. “The shapeshifters are dead. You can come out.”

Katie reached for the door handle. Leslie whimpered. Katie cracked the door open. A huge dude stood on the other side with a shotgun in his hands.

Katie raised her machete. “Prove you’re not a monster.”

The guy lowered his gun and pulled a knife from his belt. Katie hefted the machete.

“Easy. It’s silver,” the dude said. He dragged the knife across the skin of his wrist. Blood welled up, but no sizzling smoke. 

Katie relaxed slightly. “Who are you?”

“My name is Sam; this is my brother Dean.” Another big dude with shorter hair lumbered out of the dark. He surveyed the area with his shotgun at the ready. Katie recognised the set to his jaw and the position of his shoulders. Her dad hunted like that. 

“You’re hunters?”

Leslie crashed into Katie’s side. “Holy crap,” she gasped. “You’re the Winchesters.”

Sam looked startled. Dean swiveled their way, eyeing Leslie with suspicion. 

“Yeah, we are,” Sam said.

“You’ve heard of us?” Dean asked.

“I kind of thought you were a myth,” Katie said.

Dean snorted, but a smirk crawled up his face. “Let’s go. We got the rest of the shapeshifters. You did good, all things considered.”

“Except the part where we almost died,” Leslie said.

2

Hunter wakes were the worst. 

Katie wished she was old enough to down the bottle of whiskey on the coffee table in front of her. She didn’t even know the poor dead shmuck. But her dad did, and he insisted Katie should come along to pay her respects. 

“Leslie didn’t have to come,” Katie grumbled to herself. She slouched further into the old couch, wanting to sink into the floor. 

Everybody clustered around the living room had at least twenty years on her. Nobody wanted to talk to the kid. She didn’t have any stories about Tyler to share. She didn’t have any tears to shed, or laughs to offer. She might as well become the lamp in the corner for all the attention anybody paid her.

A couple of dudes in flannel sat on the other couch opposite Katie. She had tuned out their conversation ages ago. But her ears pricked at a familiar name.

“The Winchesters took out an alpha vampire.”

“You’re taking the piss.”

“No, I’m serious. They got that angel buddy helping them.”

“Dude, I thought the angels hated us.”

“This one’s palling with the Winchesters, I swear.”

“Those boys get weirder every day.”

Katie strained her ears while trying to keep her expression blank. But that moment, a fork clinked against a glass. The conversations died. 

Katie turned in her seat. Her Uncle Lou stood with a glass upraised in his hand. 

“Friends, hunters,” he started. “We are all here today to honour our fallen brother.”

Katie wasn’t listening anymore. Two men had just walked through the front door. The taller stood with his jaw clenched and his brow furrowed as he listened to Uncle Lou’s toast. The other one shuffled his feet and stuffed his hands in his green army jacket. 

Sam and Dean Winchester. 

Katie fidgeted until the toasts ended. Then she bolted off the couch. She tried to pretend nonchalance as she sidled up to the brothers. They were talking with Uncle Lou’s friend Garth.

“Dude, anytime you want to lose the babysitting gig and hunt with us again, we’ll be there,” Dean said.

Sam caught Katie’s eye first. Recognition sparked across his face. He nudged Dean. “Hey,” Sam said. “You’re that kid from the shapeshifter hunt. Kat?”

“Katie,” she corrected him. “How did you know Tyler?”

Dean chuckled. “The old coot used to hunt with our dad. We’d see him a couple times a year as kids.”

“Do you actually have an angel friend?” Katie blurted out. She clapped a hand over her mouth in horror.

Dean frowned, but Sam huffed a laugh. “Yeah, I guess.”

“That’s so cool,” Katie squeaked. “I have to go.” Go drown herself in the rain barrel, Katie thought as she turned tail and ran. If she ever met the Winchesters again, she just might die of shame.

3

Katie scrolled mindlessly through tv channels on the motel room box when a familiar face caught her eye.

“No way.” She flipped back. Katie’s mouth dropped open. Sam Winchester’s face plastered a wanted ad on the late-night news. The image flipped to his brother Dean, looking angrier than Katie remembered him. She turned up the volume.

“-shooting up a diner on the edge of town,” the news anchor reported. “These brothers are reported to be armed and dangerous. The public is being warned not to engage and to call authorities immediately.”

The motel room door opened. Leslie bustled in with her arms full of groceries.

“Look,” Katie pointed at the tv screen. “The Winchesters are on tv!”

Leslie quirked an eyebrow. “For real? What did they do, kill the President?” 

4

“Where are the Winchesters?” The vampire hissed. 

Katie’s head spun. Her heart beat slow and sluggish against her ribs. Blood flowed from her wrist over the arm of the chair, staining the ropes tying her down. 

“I told you, I don’t know them,” Katie slurred. After three days, she could hardly keep track of the endless questions. She hadn’t seen Leslie since the vampires first jumped them in the barn. Now, in the farmhouse kitchen, Katie didn’t dare think what might have happened to her friend. 

“All hunters know the Winchesters,” the blonde vampire snarled. Her needle teeth made it hard for Katie to focus on her words. 

“I know who they are,” Katie nodded. She wished she hadn’t. Sparks popped at the edge of her vision. “But I don’t know them. I don’t know where they are.”

“Try right here,” a new voice broke into the conversation from behind Katie’s back. She heard the vamp scream. Something sliced through the air and then two dull thuds hit the ground. 

Dean Winchester came into Katie’s field of vision. His green army jacket was flecked with blood. 

“You okay, kid?” Dean knelt and untied Katie’s hands.

Katie couldn’t speak. Her throat clogged with tears.

“Hey, I know you,” Dean said. “You’re that Kansas kid from the funeral. Katie, right?”

“Did you find Leslie?” Katie finally forced out. “Is she okay?”

“She’s good,” Dean assured her. He helped her to her feet. Katie swayed. “Hey,” Dean caught her shoulder. “Okay, lean on me. Let’s go find your friend.”

Katie didn’t remember the walk out of the house and into the driveway. But she recalled Leslie slamming into her and wrapping her in a hug. Katie sagged against Leslie. Over Leslie’s shoulder, Katie smiled her thanks to Dean. 

5

Katie didn’t hang out in bars. Especially hunter bars. But she and Leslie needed intel from one of her dad’s hunter pals. He insisted on meeting them at the Old Horse bar off the highway. Stepping through the front door with Leslie, Katie inhaled the stench of depression and stale sweat. 

Corky, the old hunter, sat on a stool at the bar. The visor of his old ball cap had ragged edges like his dog had chewed on it. 

Katie and Leslie slid onto barstools next to him. Corky lifted red rimmed eyes. 

“You’re Hank’s kid?”

“Yessir,” Katie nodded. 

Corky’s eyes travelled up and down Leslie. She shifted uncomfortably. The barstool squeaked. 

“Dad said you had a weird case,” Katie prompted. “Something better left to the Winchesters.”

Corky scowled. “Them boys are nothing but trouble. You ever see them, run. They tend to leave folks for dead.”

Leslie shot Katie a frown. 

“They’ve saved our lives,” Katie said.

Corky snorted. “Sure. And now you’re in their debt. When they need cannon fodder, they’ll call you.”

Katie regretted the drive to talk to Corky. “Do you have a case or not?” 

Corky reached into his coat and pulled out a stack of papers. He thumped them down on the sticky bar. “All yours. Couple kids missing all their organs. Hearts, kidneys, livers, the works. I don’t know nothing that harvests all that without taking a bite.”

“How do you mean?” Leslie flipped through the pages.

Corky shrugged. “All the guts were removed surgically. Clean cuts, no fangs, no claws.”

“Weird,” Leslie muttered. 

Katie stood. “Thanks for your time.”

Corky swivelled in his seat to watch Katie and Leslie go. “Remember what I said,” he called after them. “Don’t trust those Winchesters.”

6

Katie saw them first. Sam and Dean Winchester hanging by their wrists from the rafters of an old warehouse. Another unknown man swung next to them. Their boots had drifted lazy patterns through the dust on the floor. A rudimentary system of hoses pierced the crook of their elbows, draining red into bags hanging on crude stands next to them. 

Katie’s mind raced through a short list of possible monster culprits. Ghouls, vampires, leviathan…

“Djinn!” Leslie yelled. “Get down!”

Katie ducked. Leslie’s shotgun blasted through the space where Katie’s head had been.

An inhuman screech raised all the hairs on the back of Katie’s neck. 

Katie popped up and aimed her gun. Head shot or nothing, she told herself. The longer this fight lasted, the more opportunities the djinn had to ensnare them. Katie got a bead on the djinn’s flaming eyes. She pulled the trigger. 

The gun jammed. 

Katie cursed. The djinn’s grin glowed under its flaming blue eyes. It moved low and fast. Katie braced herself.

The shotgun blast nearly deafened Katie. Her ears rang. The djinn slumped to the ground. 

Leslie dropped her shotgun. The clattering sound was twice as concussive in the silence after the kill shot. Leslie stared down at the body. It looked like a normal middle-aged man without its glowing tattoos. Leslie shook all over.

Katie took her shaking hand and led her over to the three men strung up from the ceiling. Leslie visibly swallowed her nerves. She got to work helping an unconscious Sam.

Katie approached the unknown man at the far end. She pressed a hand to his neck, searching for a pulse. His skin was cold. He was gone. Katie bolted down the rush of emotions. She had to cut him down. He deserved that much.

Katie found a box in the corner of the warehouse to clamber on top of. She withdrew her knife and sawed through the ropes binding his wrists. She eased him down and laid him out. The ropes unwound from reddened wrists gone pale in death. Katie crossed his arms over his chest. It was the best she could do.

Katie got up and shoved the box over to Dean’s side. 

Leslie already had Sam down on the ground. She brushed his hair out of his face and tapped his cheek, trying to rouse him.

Katie focused on the ropes around Dean’s wrists. Her knife severed them easily enough. Dean’s weight slumped against Katie. She stifled a groan. How the hell had Leslie lifted Sam? He had to weigh tonnes more than Dean. 

She got Dean on the ground without doing him any serious injury. His head lolled against the concrete. Katie removed the needle in his arm. She tossed the foul thing as far as possible. Now what? She didn’t know how to wake people from djinn dreams. Katie looked over at Leslie helplessly. Leslie reflected the same confusion back. 

She gestured to Sam. “He won’t wake up.”

Dean suddenly gasped. Leslie screamed. Dean sat up so fast he nearly headbutted Katie. 

“Hey,” Katie held up her hands. “Easy. You’re okay.”

Dean’s wild eyes took in the warehouse and Katie and Leslie. His gaze landed on Sam. His whole demeanor changed. Dean went from coiled to attack to springing into defense. He dove to Sam’s side and repeated Leslie’s gentle taps to the face. It didn’t help.

“Dean,” Katie said. “We tried that. He won’t wake up.”

“Where’s the djinn?” Dean asked without looking up from his brother.

“Dead,” Leslie spat.

Dean nodded. “Good.” He wiped a hand over his face and gathered himself. “Okay. He’ll wake up in a minute now that the djinn’s dead. Help me with him.”

Katie and Leslie took Sam’s left side and Dean took the other. Together they lifted Sam and half carried half dragged him out of the warehouse. 

“Why did you wake up but not Sam?” Katie asked as they pushed the warehouse door open. 

Dean shrugged and nearly lost his grip on Sam. “I don’t know. The dream started breaking down. Maybe I’ve got more of an immunity to the djinn because I’ve been dosed more than Sam has. Or maybe it was just luck.”

“How many djinn have you killed?” Katie asked incredulously.

“I dunno,” Dean thought. “Three. Maybe four.”

Leslie gave Katie a wide-eyed stare. These Winchesters were crazy. 

Dean’s car waited in the back alley under a single street light. It was a beautiful machine. Classic and monstrous in its wide grill and sleek body. Katie and Leslie helped Dean prop Sam up in the passenger’s seat. Dean slapped his brother across the face. Sam jerked awake, spitting and swearing. 

Dean and Sam helped Katie and Leslie clear their crime scene. Then they got into their car and drove away.

Before that though, Dean offered Katie a handshake. “We owe you one,” he said.

“I think we’re even,” Katie said. 

Dean smiled. “You ever need anything, give us a call.” He gave Katie a phone number scribbled on a Gas n’ Sip napkin.

Leslie and Katie watched the Winchesters’ taillights fade into the dark.

“My dad will never believe we saved the Winchesters,” Katie said.

“I can’t believe we got their number!”


End file.
